Longshot nodded to confirm what Tyrfang said. "Yeah, Starswirl's." Hetook the carrot, savoring the fresh, unirradiated taste even as he mumbled to himself "This doesn't taste anything like Sparkle Cola..."

The edge of Tyrfang's mouth twitched, for multiple reasons, before stepping in. He decided not to touch on reason one, Mustang's comment.

"Considering my little brother isn't in his room grounded like he should be, then probably, yes." He said, gnashing his teeth, closing the door behind him. "I swear, when he gets home, I'm gonna go ask somepony to weld that window shut. Maybe hobble him too."

But no sooner after he closed the door, it was opened again and slammed the stallion straight on the snout. Tyrfang blurted something unintelligible, paralleling a curseword, before clunching his face and trying not to cry in pain.

The door opener happened to be a mare with a long mane tied in a pony tail, looking quite ragged with some dripping saddlebags. She looked tired, and covered with dirt.

"Sorry I'm late Mustang, lost my balance and hit the ground pretty hard. ...And a few buildings too." She said, not noticing the suffering pony right by the door. "Ended up walking, but most of the groceries are squished and covered in eggs now, so I guess we're-"

She stopped, noticing the bag and the carrot that was being eaten and then the stranger munching on another a little too thoughtfully, and talking about 'Sparkle Cola'. "Oh, good. You went out instead, never mind then. ...Who's the odd fellow?"

Motioning to the odd fellow with a carrot in his mouth Mustang tries not to snicker at Tyrfang. “Longshot this is Smokin Gun, Smokin Gun this is Longshot. Also yeah I figured something had happened after you'd been gone all morning, find what you were looking for?”Grabbing a bag he fills it with ice before tossing it towards Tyrfang.

"Walk it off, kid. It's not the first time you've gotten a kiss on the nose today," Longshot chuckled, turning to the new arrival. "Nice to meet you, assuming you don't feel like being gloomy. It's way too beautiful out today for that." He took another bite of the carrot, chewing slowly.

It took a little searching to find Mustangs apartment especially with Starlight on her back, but she was eager to get back to Tyrfang at least. Landing out front she peers inside seeing another pony in there, She didn't recognize her, but more importantly, Tyrfang looked like he was hurting. She quickly moves to his side and looks down at him curiously. "What happened?" She asked worriedly. Starlight peers over her mothers mane looking around curiously, She has a small heater shield strapped her her small back, something she's refused to part with since the train attack. She clings to her 'mother protectively as she waves shyly at the assembled ponies.

"Door hit him in the face. Sorry 'bout that." She said quickly, kicking the ice a bit closer to the whimpering pegasus. "And I dunno, still short on leads. I did get some cider at least, let's hope it's still good..."

"And I ain't grumpy Longshot, just sore..." Smoking said, walking to the kitchen and putting the bags in the sink. "Wearin' a harness that basically lets me fly like a bird. Unfortunately, still ain't used to it fully, so accidents are pretty common..."

She then walked over to where her scarf and hat was hanging, and donned the two, feeling at least a bit more professional. Smoking looked over the new arrivals, as well as the stranger, then pointed at each of them in turn. "I'm assuming, the stallion's that Tyrfang fellow you grumble about Mustang, the alicorn's Spirit Wind, the cute kid's your other daughter, Starlight?"

"And you're not from around here, I'm guessing. That gun doesn't look like anything I've seen produced in Equestria, even from the labs over by the school." Smoking concluded, rounding on the only other unicorn in the room with horn intact.

Longshot winked at the shy filly and greeted her with a bright "Hey kiddo."

He turned his attention back to Smokin'. "It's Ironshod Firearm's top sniper rifle. But you've got a couple revolvers there that wouldn't look out of place where I'm from. Mind if I have a look? I'll be careful with 'em. I'm an expert in firearms."

“That's putting it mildly Smokin, and yay more guns,” comments the exasperated stallion before waving back at his younger daughter. “Hey Star, I take it you have no idea where your sister is do you or Prank for that matter?”

Spirit sits down next to tyrfang, and Starlight alights from her back for a moment before landing next to spirit. "A door huh?" She gives a momentarily dark look to Smoking before looking at the strangely quiet Tyrfang. Maybe his head got hurt more then just a hit to the nose? "And yes, Starlight could be considered his daughter." She sighs softly, looking down at her daughter.

Starlight shakes her head and pouts softly at mustant. "No I haven't seen either of them for a little while actually..." She looks at the strange new ponies shyly, shuffling a little closer to her mother. "I haven't been outside too much..." They seemed nice though. Finally remembering her manners she lets out a shy. "H-hello I'm Starlight."

Tyrfang took the ice, and placed it where it was throbbing, grumbling. He didn't want to say anything, mildly humiliated about being incapacitated by a door, and the relationship between Spirit and Mustang being brought up again. Even more so embarrassing that it felt like Spirit was watching over him again, glowering at the mare that had bopped him in the nose on accident. He did not like feeling like a cub to a lioness.

The mare however decidedly to pointedly ignore the alicorn's glare, deciding to note down she was protective. She took out one of the guns, and rather uncharacteristically handed it over to Longshot. "I'll be honest, I don't doubt ya. It's almost obvious you've got a lot of experience with more than just that rifle with ya. But of course, you accidentally break anything and I won't hesitate to bust yer balls."

While Longshot was looking over the gun, looked over the timid little filly, and couldn't help but laugh. "Well I have to hoof it to ya Mustang, at least yer good for making cute kids! How old are ya sweetie?"

LongshotCanterlot - Apartments"I'm Longshot," he said to the filly with a slight bow of his head. He was soon paying full attention to the gun, however, pulling the cylinder out and dumping the bullets into his telekenetic grip. Can't be too careful with the kid around, after all. "I'll treat her like my own," he said with sincerity. "My captain carried a pair of .44s too..."He flipped the cylinder back in, sighting down it and feeling the weight, making his agreement about Mustang making cute kids known with a grunt as he studied the revolver.

“She's a bit younger then Silver, Smokin.” Ignoring the mares other comment the stallion nods to Star. Moving to the fridge Mustang fishes out a slice of pie from the fridge with a fork floating the bit of dessert from his father over to her. “Grandpa says hi.”

"Hi Longshot..." She mumbles shyly. The little filly immediately brightens however when the dessert floats over, abandoning her shyness she begins to dig in cheerfully. "Thanks daddy...and grampa" She cheerfuly exclaims through a mouthful. "I'm pretty young, it's...uhm...pretty complicated, I think." Spirit gently nudges Starlight with her muzzle before turning to longshot, examining the guns, she never did like them all that much, but then again, she never really had to use one before either.

"Yes, it's...complex...Anyway, It's nice to see you out and about Mustang." Spirit calmly states, not really used to casual conversation. "So many other ponies in here, it's feeling a little cramped."

"She's beautiful. Hoofmade by a pro," Longshot said as he started loading the bullets back in. "Captain would've been jealous... Never seen these kind of bullets before, though." He floated the revolver back over. "Where do you get them? I was under the impression this world wasn't mass producing this sort of thing."

“Generally we aren't mass producing anything like her weapons, in fact the Alliance has us beat when it comes to tech, though we tend to out perform them in the arcane realm.” Looking like he wanted to say more the stallion stops a short glance at Star starting him up again. “So Tyrfang, was this an attempt to include me along in your day trip out to Clockwork's school for wonderment?”

"What he said. It was custom made by a friend of mine down at the school Mustang mentioned. I never really asked how he came up with the design or the ammo, but he said he got it from somewhere. Here, I got more too. Standard and other elemental types. Fairly certain I have the regular ones loaded in." She said, fishing around her scaf's pocket, and pulled out a hooful of rounds. "By the way, I hope you all aren't expecting me of feeding you. Pretty sure I've only got four extra chairs."

As the gun conversation went on, Tyrfang took the ice off his nose, and rubbed it gingerly. "Yeah, was one of the Princess's requests. Dunno, your name floats around the city pretty often, so I figured he'd want to meet you eventually. Not to mention, it's one of the first places to check when Prank disappears nowadays."

The stallion stood up, his face somewhat stony at Starlight saying 'daddy'. "I think it was a good decision, seeing how well he's getting along with your roommate. Also... Hey Longshot, didn't you say something about spells earlier at the castle?"

Spirit sighs softly, ""We certainly do excel in magic, but there are some dragons who are quite skilled in it too." She looks over at smoking a little confused about her comment about food"Well we only did just eat, so I do not think we'll need more pancakes until later in the day." Mused spirit, not really paying attention to all the talk about firearms still. She did notice the change in expression on Tyrfangs face, She hesitates before gently nudging him with her snout as if trying to ask what's wrong.

Starlight continued to eat cheerfully, sitting down now and adjusting the admittedly heavy shield to take some of the weight off her. "It'll be great to be on a trip together at least! so I'm for it!" she smiles, not really wanting to admit she felt more secure from attack with all the ponies here.

=======

Necerion

Dragons Keep - Arcanist Laboratories

The elder dragon had a wide smile across his fanged maw, Certainly things had taken an interesting turn. He lets out a rumbling sigh, a pony from another world. A ravaged World. A world without the sisters or the elements...He chuckles, "So those 'princesses' are beatable after all..." he muses to himself, The great dragon turns sweeping his gaze through his laboratory. pondering, not focusing on the conversation that the ponies were having, best not to take any unnecessary risks lest someone discover the magic he'd wrought on the witch The spells he had put on her being broken didn't purge everything it seems.

He moves through his lab muttering to himself musing on these developments. This "pink mist" the interdementional traveler mentioned could be of use, but where to even start with such a substance. He claimed the Zebra's developed it. Necerion snorts, if the Zebra's could come up with it, then he would be able to make it, and even more effective...

Stopping that line of thought he gazes at a few ponies suspended in liquid, bodies frozen and covered with large crystalline growths. The thought that he-no those experiments had failed to capture the filly, still brought irritation to the elder, though they had brought him valuable information on how his elemental pet project was coming along. Perhaps, it was time for another experiment.

Longshot examined the bullets Smoking handed over, but couldn't make much sense of what he was seeing. An elemental enchantment of some kind certainly, but it used some methodology he'd never heard of. ... Not all that surprising in retrospect. Still, he was impressed. Any gunman could have the rapid response flexiblity he had, but without using their own magical reserves. Only with the one weapon, though... Still, this sort of technology could-

He was pulled from his examination by Tyr asking him something directly. "Hm? Oh, you mean the spells I know? What about them?"

...Bit of an airhead, that one is. Smoking thought, somewhat flatly. But she unconsciously nodded a bit. Although, those types are usually honest. ...Wait, did she say pancakes?

The mare mulled over the strange idea of having pancakes for anything but breakfast, as Tyrfang spoke to Longshot. The idea was so odd, that she didn't notice that the pegasus had just ignored pancake mare's nudge in a poor attempt to pretend nothing was wrong. "Well, Mustang here's pretty proficient in magic and stuff. I mean, he could..."

And nothing came to his mind, as hard as he tried. He'd seen the crimson stallion do a lot of magic, but he really had no idea what any of it was, or what was even going on when that usually occurred. Too busy focusing on other stuff.

"...Tell him Mustang." He said, attempting to divert attention to the unicorn.

Fixing Tyrfang with a venomous glance that lasted for only a moment and then was gone the stallion looks moves over to one of the bed rooms his horn glowing darkly. “I was an arcane researcher, expert in a field of rare and dangerous magic before the war. Part of that knowledge was why I ended up where I did. Very dangerous stuff, as the type has only one real function.” Floating the saddle bags out the fall across his flank before the door clicks shut. Looking back at the assorted mass of ponies in Smokin's kitchen the stallion didn't really feel like going out. “I'm assuming you mentioned something either out of the ordinary or destructive and Tyrfang thought we could discuss that.”